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About the grammar quiz in the WSJ article

Bydr.kim

About the grammar quiz in the WSJ article

A less-than-polite response to the Wall Street Journal’s grammar quiz from the linguist behind Real Grammar.

 It’s the usual mish-mash of zombie rules, shibboleths and prejudices. Half of the questions are not about grammar at all, but about spelling and punctuation. Two fail to acknowledge a difference between British and American English usage. Three are based on false ideas about which words can introduce relative clauses. And, inevitably, there are the misguided questions about between versus among, less versus fewer and I in object position or following a preposition.

The video tutorial on active and passive voice

The video tutorial on active and passive voice

Bydr.kim

Folks who rail against passive voice usually cite an unethical writer (or speaker) who is trying to avoid responsibility. Passive voice is certainly one linguistic tool for unethical behavior. But active voice can be used unethically, too. Compare the two lies: My homework was eaten. (passive) The dog ate my homework. (active) I see confusion here between the tool and the…

Amateurs accept platitudes about passive voice
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Amateurs accept platitudes about passive voice

Bydr.kim

“Passive voice is bad,” cry self-proclaimed (but undereducated) writing experts.  I’ve known lots of these folks who can’t accurately identify a passive. And very few folks who can accurately define it. And even fewer who can provide amateur writers with more useful advice than this platitude. (In fact, I can’t accurately call it a platitude since…

The video tutorial on cohesion

The video tutorial on cohesion

Bydr.kim

Yesterday’s post argued that sentence variety is the enemy of efficiency.  Efficient sentence organization is dependent on cohesion: the links between ideas that hold sentences together. My experience teaching professionals to write is that most are able to create cohesive prose without explicit instruction.  But, for those without this ability, the problem is critical. Their readers struggle…

Bydr.kim

Parker’s post on genres is great. It nicely captures the fact that, when aspects of rhetorical context like speech act (or purpose) are repeated often, they give rise to genres. One common workplace genre is the directive. You may notice that these speech acts fall within the four purposes identified in my tutorial: representatives = informing, directives…

Amateurs don’t want to be beginners

Amateurs don’t want to be beginners

Bydr.kim

Growing up, my son never wanted to start at the beginning. I guess it’s human nature. I mean who doesn’t want to start with dessert? My son’s desire wasn’t an issue until he wanted to participate in some new activity that required skill (think karate, piano, golf, etc.), and he still wanted to skip the beginning. With those…